It’s a Tax, stupid.

Halloween is over, but the fright is just beginning. At a time when taxpayers are struggling with a faltering economy, plummeting home values, declining retirement investments and education savings, salary cuts or job losses, and reduced public safety services, the state is there to help by adding to the burden. Talk about dumb.

It shouldn’t be allowed to happen, but it is – and at the worst possible time.

I’m talking about a triple whammy tax increase: a quarter percent income tax increase and a reduction in the dependent tax credit coupled with a 10 percent income tax increase.

I know bureaucrats are claiming it’s not really a tax increase, just an accelerated collection. But misleading government jargon aside, the tax-man will take 10 percent more from your paycheck – saying (wink, wink) that you’ll get it back when you file your taxes. But in my book, when the state takes your money (there is a reason it’s called confiscatory power) it’s a tax increase no matter what fancy name they slap on it.

Years ago, I worked as vice president for a bank; and I seem to recall that when someone borrowed money, there was a little condition on the loan…now what was that… oh, yeah – interest.  But the tax-man won’t be paying you any interest.  And if you don’t pay up, he’ll take it from you anyway. Al Capone would be proud.

A flack for the tax collector says it’s no big deal and not very much money anyway, claiming that if you make $17,000 a year and have 10 dependents, you’ll only see a few dollars increase per month. That’s just another example of how out of touch bureaucrats are – because if you’re making $17,000 a year and have 10 kids, you probably need every one of those dollars.

Here’s my message to the state: It is a lot of money! This tax increase will allow California government to spend an extra $1.7 billion – on credit. Meanwhile, legislators avoid making needed cuts and rack up even more debt.

Small businesses and families are already struggling to make ends meet and will be the hardest hit by this reckless and irresponsible tax increase. It’s time to stop.

Compare the state’s lack of responsibility to local governments. As a City Council, we’ve rolled taxes back – we eliminated the utility tax, cut fees on businesses and development to help put people back to work, and reduced city staff to ensure we were living within our means.  And don’t even get me started about the state swiping local property taxes and redevelopment funds to pay for bloated pensions, benefits and other perks.

State bureaucrats claim they’re doing everything to cut costs. Hogwash!

The state budget has nearly doubled in the last 10 years – are our roads twice as good? Is education twice as effective? Are our neighborhoods twice as safe? I don’t think so.

If California is ever going to be the Golden State again, we have to force government to live within its means, make the state deal with the same economic challenges families are facing, and stop punishing the most productive citizens and businesses that create jobs.

If the Legislature will focus on creating jobs instead of protecting special interests and playing gotcha’ political games, maybe it could solve some problems instead of conjuring up more of them with sneaky tax increases on California families. 

If they won’t, let’s get some folks up there who will.

Acquanetta Warren is Vice-mayor of Fontana and a Republican candidate for California Assembly District 63.  You can learn more about her at www.Acquanetta.org.

 

 

PS: Disclaimer: I’ve worked with Acquanetta since before she was elected to the City Council and am running her Assembly District 63 campaign…

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.